The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalty thereon.
The present invention relates generally to incandescent lighting systems and more specifically to a new design for a high efficiency liquid filament system with long life. Apart from the selection of filament materials, the design of the incandescent light has not evolved much since its initial development by Thomas Edison as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 223,898 issued Jan. 27, 1880.
The present invention includes a new design for an incandescent light that uses a rotating liquefied filament. The rotating filament consists of a thin layer of filament metal deposited on the interior surface of a filament mount. This mount is fitted within an evacuated quartz torus which is rotating about an axis within an evacuated glass envelope.
The filament device is designed to rotate at a speed sufficient to prevent the molten filament metal from boiling off from, or breaking away from, the surface of the filament mount as it rotates. The rotational speed of the torus will create a centrifugal force greater than the thermal forces, which would otherwise destroy the molecular integrity of the filament metal. To solve the possible problem of evaporation of the filament, this lamp could be built as currently manufactured halogen bulbs.
The temperature of the deposited filament metal will exceed its normal melting point as it rotates. As it becomes hotter it will luminesce more in exponential proportion to the current applied.